Methods for enhancing UL coverage, throughput and transmission latency in a wireless communication system, such as a frequency division duplex (FDD) system, are currently being investigated in release 6 (R6) of the third generation partnership project (3GPP). Instead of scheduling and assigning UL physical channels in a radio network controller (RNC), a Node-B (i.e., a base station controller) is used to communicate with a plurality of WTRUs such that more efficient decisions can be made and UL radio resources can be managed on a short-term basis better than the RNC, even if the RNC retains overall control of the system. A similar approach has already been adopted in the downlink for release 5 (R5) of high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) in a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) for both an FDD mode and a time division duplex (TDD) mode.
In order for the Node-B to make efficient allocation decisions and prioritize between different data flows, the Node-B requires knowledge of UL data buffered in the WTRU for individual data channels along with their associated priority. However, conventional UL signaling methods have limited capacity, and thus may not be able to accommodate the reporting of detailed traffic volume measurement (TVM) information from the WTRU.